Why NDC group wants info from the EC boss to get her fired

SELF-incrimination is hardly something lawyers do to themselves, but that is what a group of National Democratic Congress(NDC) sympathisers are asking the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission to do.

They are asking the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensah,  to provide the evidence that would help them remove her from office.

A known NDC lawyer, Chris Akumey has handed over the group’s demands to the EC boss asking her to confirm allegations they have heard about her amounting to conflict of interest and procurement breaches.

The group said the Right to Information Law passed last year, after almost 20 years of gathering dust, entitled them to the material evidence they want to nail the EC chair.

“There is no petition going for her removal. What our request is seeking to do is to provide information for the various allegations which have been publicly levelled against her. She should either deny or confirm [them].

“Judging from the reasons she gives we’ll decide whether to petition for her removal or not,” Mr. Akumey said on Citi News.

The group has given Mrs. Mensah 14 days to meet their demand.

“We have given her 14 days within which to respond. We will advise ourselves as to what to do, as citizens of Ghana interested in safeguarding our democracy, which looks so fragile now.  Because of the unacceptable things that she intends to do or is doing,” Mr. Akumey said.

The NDC has never hidden its contempt for the EC boss ever since she was appointed in July 2018, to replace Charlotte Osei, who was removed from office on allegations of procurement breaches.

Then in government, the NDC appointed Mrs. Osei in 2015 to replace Ghana’s longest-serving EC Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan.  But a series of controversies including an open media war between her and her peers on the commission, as well as allegations of procurement breaches got Mrs. Osei and some of her colleagues out of office . This followed an exhaustive process that travelled from President Nana Akufo-Addo to the then Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo.

The ruling New Patriotic Party then in opposition also never approved the appointment of Mrs. Osei, whom they described as a hireling of the NDC—She denied it on countless occasions.

With the 2020 elections just six months away, Mr. Akumey said his clients wanted to clean the EC legally.

“My client in consonance with the right to the information bill is asking her to confirm whether indeed she has breached some of the procurement rules as alleged by IMANI Ghana and other civil society organisations are alleging,” he said.

IMANI allegations 

The Electoral Commission has been under pressure from 18 civil society organisations, including IMANI Africa for allegedly breaching procurement laws in the acquisition of new biometric machines, they claim was not worth the cost.

They claimed the EC had spent millions of dollars of the taxpayers’ money since 2016 to beef up their biometric equipment hence did not need $200 million for a new election architecture.

The EC, on the other hand, insisted that the existing biometric equipment had outlived their usefulness and the cost of fixing them was more expensive than acquiring a new set.

The group believes IMANI’s and the CSOs case was credible enough to demand answers from the EC chair.

That is not all the NDC group has against the EC Chairperson.

The group also wanted to know if Mrs. Mensah was truly the member of an NPP Ladies Club and patronised their activities and had been seen in their paraphernalia in violation of her position as the chief referee of Ghana’s elections.

By writing to the EC Chairperson, Mr. Akumey said the group had been charitable as it did not just decide to petition the President to remove Mrs Mensah from office as was the case of her predecessor.

“We are giving her a hearing. It is from that tangent that we will move on whether to petition or not,” he said.